PIE e/o Ablaut

[Stanley Friesen]

At 12:02 AM 3/8/00 +0000, Patrick C. Ryan wrote:
>At a time long ago, in an Urheimat far away . . .

>When PIE had only one vowel, /a/ . . .

This is where I start to have a problem.  As far as I know, NO living
language has only one vowel, or at most only one or two such languages
exist.  The normal minimum is *three* vowels: /a/, /i/, /u/.

>[PR]

>So are you saying there was a time when PIE had two phonemic vowels: /a/ and
>/a:/?

Most would call this stage pre-PIE, or something like that, not plain PIE.

[And I would suspect he is saying it had only two non-high vowels, which is
slightly different].

>And, if so, what are some roots that had phonemic /a:/ at this stage?

Those that show 'o' in PIE proper, except where that is analogical or
grammatical.

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May the peace of God be with you.         sarima at ix.netcom.com